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Only being familiar with their 2003 full-length Salvation, Funeral Mist is a band that I wrote off a long time ago. It's strange, as I would normally check out demo recordings, but the material on that album was so unappealing that there didn't seem to be any point in doing so. Eventually, someone recommended that I give a listen to their 1995 demo, Darkness. While it's not exactly anything special, it's much better than the later works issued under this name.
Darkness is quite under-produced, possessing a raw sound very typical of demos of this period. At times, the guitars have sort of a buzzing/whirring sound, which actually suits the atmosphere. It shares a few similarities with Horna's Kun synkkä ikuisuus avautuu rehearsal. Fortunately, this tape features Typhos (later of Dark Funeral and Infernal) on vocals, rather than the annoying Arioch (who only handles bass duties here). The overall sound is fairly muddy at times, but you can still manage to hear everything that is going on.
The best songs on here are "Dreams of a Time Before Time" and "In Black Silence". The opener is much better than anything that follows, building some unrealistic expectations and giving way to a small measure of disappointment. The latter utilizes a bit of synth, giving somewhat of a horror vibe. Many of the riffs seems to take inspiration from bands such as Emperor and Marduk, leaning more toward the former. The keyboard interlude, "In the Shadows I Wait", may not be all that necessary, but its inclusion doesn't hurt anything, either. The guitar melodies found in songs like "Funeral Mist" and "Blasphemy" (as well as the overused synth in the latter) give the music a lighter feeling, losing the dark and evil vibe that such a necro recording could have created.
All in all, this is a fairly average recording. It is weaker than other Swedish Black Metal demos of the time, such as Moloch's Cutting Holy Throats or Härskare av den svarta natten by Skuggmörker. It should, of course, be of interest to those who are searching for solid mid-90s Black Metal. That said, Darkness is only remarkable in any manner by comparing it to Funeral Mist's better-known (and incredibly awful) releases.
